Senator Weinberg Hits a Home Run

An important point in the opinion of the 9th Circuit Court (0.00 / 0)

Even though only 2 of the 3 circuit court judges in the 9th Circuit Court ruled yesterday that Propositon 8 in California was unconstitutional (Case No. 10-16696, Kristin Perry v. Edmund G. Brown, Jr.) all three judges agreed that former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker (of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California), who is openly gay, was not disqualified from ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional in Perry v. Schwarzenegger in August 2010 simply because he is a gay man in a committed relationship.  In the circuit court opinion released yesterday it states on pp. 7-8: "We also affirm--for substantially the reasons set forth in the district court's opinion--the denial of the motion by the official sponsors of Proposition 8 to vacate the judgment entered by former Chief Judge Walker, on the basis of his purported interest in being allowed to marry his same-sex partner." This is very important because it directly applies to Christie's Supreme Court nominee, Bruce Harris.  Harris recently said that he would recuse himself if the issue of same-sex marriage comes before the Supreme Court since he personally advocated for same-sex marriage in an e-mail he sent to state legislators in 2009.  Sending your opinions to your representatives on a specific issue should not be grounds for having to recuse yourself from deciding on the constitutionality of that issue and neither should.  Also, the fact that Harris is openly gay should not be a legitimate reason to recuse himself from deciding on same-sex marriage that even conservative 9th circuit court judge N. Randy Smith (a Bush Jr. appointee) agrees does not count as bias from a judge.  Senator Weinberg and other Senate Democrats should mention this point during his eventual confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  For a link to the full 128 page opinion by the 9th Circuit Court go here:   http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/da...

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by: zi985 @ Wed Feb 08, 2012 at 19:31:59 PM UTC

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please,

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by: SmartyJones @ Wed Feb 08, 2012 at 20:07:33 PM UTC

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